Breakfast Cupcakes
by rhythm junkie
Summary: Edward, Bella and Breakfast Cupcakes - an AU/AH fluffy little birthday ficlet for the beautiful PortiaKhalo.


**This is a light and fluffy birthday fic for the best thing fandom has given me, the fantastically brilliant Queen of All Food Porn, PortiaKhalo. I love you to infinity dearheart and I hope you enjoy this little slice of my adoration xxx**

**Meyer owns it all.**

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><p>Bella woke up feeling suspicious. Suspicious because she had awakened naturally instead of being laid to siege by the giggling monsters she shared her life, and often her pillows, with. She rolled over, rubbing her distended tummy, and slid carefully out of her very empty bed. The hallway, desolately bare of toys and tiny terrors, only deepened Bella's suspicion. A bad Elvis impersonation steered her toward the unfamiliar sight of a mostly-closed kitchen door.<p>

Bella frowned as she reached out to push it open. The kitchen was the centre of her home. It's where she had honed the talent that had, after much grunt work, won her the network job; a job that allowed her to provide both financial security for her family and the constant presence of a parent in the house for her boys.

Right now, it was the place that ensconced her horribly out-of-tune, Elvis singing, stay-at-home husband. Bella's mouth dropped open when the door had swung wide enough to reveal the innards of her kitchen. It wasn't the mess that littered the space that rendered her incoherent. In fact, she barely registered the flour dusting the cabinets or the egg trails across her antique table or the salsa drips on the floor... Okay, maybe she noticed a _little_ but everything paled in comparison to the vision currently shaking his butt along to the music.

Her horribly out-of-tune, Elvis singing, stay-at-home husband had, in the swing of a door, transformed into her barefoot, wearing-jeans-and-_literally_-nothing-else, unbearably sexy, Edward. Her Edward who, at that very moment, swung round and almost choked on the wooden spoon he had been singing enthusiastically into, eyes widening comically at the sight of her.

Bella took a moment to appreciate, without the usual distraction of morning chatter and breakfast preparation, the way Edward's skin looked with a slant of sunlight striping across his shoulder. She took another moment to appreciate the copper hair that she loved to bury her fingers in, streaked with the detritus of his clearly busy morning. Then, since it was so rare for there to be a morning free of her work commitments and their boys, she took an extra long moment to appreciate the entire ensemble that was her Edward, from the tips of his naked toes to the top of his sleep-and-food mussed hair.

"Bella."

Edward's voice, low and throaty in the silence, drew her eyes to the mouth he was currently running the tip of his tongue over before she managed to drag them all the way up to meet his.

"You should still be in bed Bella," he murmured, slipping slowly across the tile toward her, "You're ruining the surprise."

"Mmm?" she replied, distracted as she was by the play of muscles across his bare stomach as he moved, and the way flour puffed from his skin to swirl gently in the morning light.

Edward was right there, bare toe to bare toe with her, smiling a smile that made her knees weak. She tipped her head up and let her eyes slide shut, shivering as the pleasant scent of lime touched her senses just before Edward's mouth pressed oh-so-chastely against hers. By the time she opened her eyes he had already dropped to his knees and pushed her pyjama shirt up to expose the round swell of her tummy.

"And good morning to you too, love," he murmured against her. Bella's heart clenched tightly when the little muffin baking inside wriggled in delight at the sound of his Daddy's voice, making the slowly-tightening skin of her abdomen ripple against Edward's lips. He chuckled in response before replacing his lips with his hand and straightening again.

"Where are the boys?" Bella asked and Edward's eye's glinted mischief.

"My mother picked them up early. She and Dad are going to bring them to meet us this afternoon." He brought sticky fingers up to slide across her collarbone, followed by the ghost of his mouth. "I thought it might be nice for me to spend your birthday morning spoiling you without distraction."

"Spoiling?" Bella attempted to ask, but the effect was rather ruined when the end of the word was swallowed by a breathy gasp induced by the tip of Edward's tongue tracing the column of her throat. He made a small affirmative noise against the soft place beneath her ear then bit her earlobe gently.

"Oh...Edward..." Bella's voice was a mere whisper against his hair, her fingertips pressing grooves into his bare arms, slipping on a smear of something that smelled spicy and delicious.

"Mmm," Edward agreed, the palms of his hands against the bare skin of her back, "More of that for sure but first..."

He swirled her round in a pretty waltz, humming into her ear, swallowing her with his presence, before pressing her carefully into a waiting chair at the far end of the table. Bella made a small disgruntled noise as he pulled away, petulantly snatching at the loops of his jeans, but Edward merely smiled as he untangled her fingers and kissed the tip of her nose.

"Breakfast first," he announced firmly and picked up the bowl that had been discarded on the countertop, stirring vigorously, "Ladies who are fruiting need sustenance."

Managing to tear her gaze from Edward now that he was safely out of reach, Bella finally noticed the rack of what looked like cakes cooling near the open window. She raised an eyebrow and Edward grinned, making her tingle.

"Breakfast Cupcakes."

The words stirred something deep in Bella's head, an elusive memory, and she frowned, trying to pull it to the surface.

"Why do I recognise that?"

Edward smiled again, an altogether softer affair that had Bella's toes curling and muffin twisting somersaults inside her, and produced something from behind his back, handing it over with an almost-shy expression.

It was a tatty, spiral-bound notebook.

"Oh my gosh." Bella's eyes went wide as her fingers closed around the worn cover, the feel of it in her hand so familiar that unexpected tears sprung to her eyes. "Where did you find this?"

Edward's hand found her shoulders and his eyes were tender when they met her memory-wet ones.

"It was in one of the boxes in the attic," he explained, "The ones we haven't unpacked since the last move."

Bella stroked the cover gently and remembered how it had travelled with her, always within reaching distance, for the entire four years of college. This notebook contained the beginnings of her career, weighed in cups and ounces. She fingered the swollen pages, more and more added as time went on, tied in place with hair bands and pieces of red thread that Edward saved her from the sandwiches he bought from the deli he passed on the way to college each morning, stuffing them in his pockets and presenting them to her at the end of the week with a flourish and a kiss.

Gently, he opened it in her hands and there it was, a scribbled recipe for Breakfast Cupcakes pencilled in hastily and littered with crossed out ingredients and question marks next to guessed-at quantites. There was no attached polaroid of the finished product and no improvement notes so Bella knew she had never actually attempted this particular creation.

When she looked up from the page of her past, Edward was busily smearing the savoury frosting generously over the top of the now-cooled cupcakes. Bella watched his careful movements as he transferred them from the cooling rack to a plate, fingers gentle and quick, before bearing the plate to the table.

"Home-made Breakfast Cupcakes." Edward grinned and Bella grinned back at her beautiful, batter-soaked husband, who gently smacked her hand away as she reached for the plate.

Bella opened her mouth to admonish that they weren't there just to look pretty, but the words were lost in the flush of heat raised by the look in Edward's eye – needful and protective and so very Edward that Bella's breath caught.

Without allowing her to break eye contact, Edward reached for a cupcake and tore a piece off, smudging frosting down the edge of his index finger in a way that made Bella ache to lick it off. He smiled like he knew what she was thinking and raised the morsel to his mouth. She watched hungrily as it slipped between his lips, leaving a fine dusting of crumbs in its wake.

Seemingly satisfied, he broke off a bigger piece and anchored it carefully to Bella's mouth, pressing it gently to her lips until she parted them before placing it delicately on her tongue. She closed her mouth as he withdrew, capturing the tips of his index and thumb and Edward groaned lightly as they grazed the inside of her mouth as he pulled away.

The cupcakes were heavenly and Bella closed her eyes to better appreciate the crumbly sweetness of the sponge that peeked through the gentle spiciness of the avocado and cream cheese frosting as she rolled the morsel thoroughly against her tastebuds.

When she re-opened her eyes, Edward's were on her, dark with want. She watched as the slight pressure of his fingers caused the bottom of the cupcake to burst and drip salsa into his waiting palm. Bella scooted forward and captured his hand, raising it to her mouth to lick the still-warm drops from his skin.

They continued their dance for another three cupcakes apiece, until Edward was satisfied that she had eaten enough. They had drawn closer until their legs were tangled, breath mingling in the inches between their mouths. Edward leaned down and his lips tasted of everything worth having in her life.

"I think," he groaned against her throat, fingertips beneath her pyjama top, "that we should get you back to bed."

"Oh?" Bella replied, laughing at the earnest nodding of his head against her breastbone.

"You need your rest," he insisted then, pulling back, whispered wickedly, "And it's much easier to worship you as you deserve where I can lay you down."

They were both out of the kitchen without stopping to wash their sticky hands, Bella thinking distractedly that she would have to write a note on the recipe to use cupcake wrappers to help the bottom seal and keep the salsa in place. It took Edward less than a minute to make her forget this minor improvement completely.

Later, catching Edward's eye as they sat under the shade of an umbrella on the deck of her favourite cafe, iced-water in her hand and laughter in her mouth and her heart, she'd think that perhaps the cupcake recipe was fine just as it was.

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><p><strong>Breakfast Cupcakes are actually my girl's invention. The recipe, and photos of the finished product, can be found here http: .com /2011/06/ breakfast-cupcakes. html on my girl's blog (take out the spaces people).**

**If you enjoyed this little piece of food porn then I implore you to check out Portiakhalo's writing - I personally rec Tines http:/ .net /s/6272447/1/ Tines (again with the spaces remember!). Leave her some birthday love.**

**Hugs to the great LovelyBrutal who beta'd this little scene last-minute for me. Mwah!**


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